Part 33 (1/2)

”To lie close until it gets dark.”

”But why that tree? It's on the edge of the wood. Why not go further in, where it's ever so much thicker?”

”Because if the Huns track us this far they'll naturally conclude that we've bolted for cover. They'll doubtless beat the interior of the wood and not pay much attention to the part nearest the ca.n.a.l.

Besides, from this particular tree we can command a wide outlook without running much risk of detection.”

By the aid of their belts Barcroft and Kirkwood succeeded in a.s.sisting the wounded officer to gain the lowermost branch. Thence it was a comparatively simple matter to climb another thirty feet.

Here two huge limbs gave a tolerably secure perch, wide enough to hide the fugitives from the sight of any persons pa.s.sing underneath, and yet able to afford an outlook over a wide expanse of open country.

”Now let's look at that injured arm,” said Barcroft, producing his ”first aid” outfit. ”Slip his coat off, Bobby; we don't want to cut that away. H'm! clean hole, by Jove! Iodine and gauze, old man.

That's capital. I've morphia tablets here; if you feel in much pain I'll give you half a one and no more. Can't afford to have your brain dulled by morphia at this stage of the proceedings, John.',

”That's easier,” said Fuller with a sigh of relief. ”Now if you'll be so good as to unlace my boot I'll ma.s.sage this low-down ankle.”

”You'll keep still,” ordered Barcroft firmly, ”We'll do the rubbing business--if only to keep our blood circulating.”

”Did you save your map?” inquired Fuller.

”I burnt mine.”

”Yes, I have mine,” replied the flight-sub. ”I make it about sixty miles from the Dutch frontier--not much use making a shot for the coast, I take it?”

”Phew! Sixty miles--I did that distance once on a walking tour. For pleasure, mark you,” said Fuller. ”Plenty to eat, a decent show to put up at every night, and quite fine weather and I had galled heels by the end of the second day.”

”If we could sneak a captive balloon like you did at Sylt,” remarked the A.P. ”That would be top-hole.”

”A bit of sheer good luck,” said Fuller reminiscently. ”That sort of dose isn't often repeated. Tressidar and I broke into a house and collared suits of mufti. That won't do here, though. We were on Danish soil then; now we are in occupied Belgium. Caught and we are shot as spies, while the unfortunate civilians to whom the clothes belong would be strung up for a.s.sisting us to escape, whether they did it knowingly or otherwise. Time for more amateur burglar work when we're on Dutch soil. That's my opinion. You see, if we cross the frontier in uniform we'll be interned. I remember----”

”Look!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the A.P., pointing in the direction of the farmhouse.

Making their way across the fields were about a hundred people, men and women, herded together in rough military formation and escorted by grey-coated German infantry. The civilians were on their way to forced labour in the fields. Woe betide the luckless Belgian, male or female, who showed the faintest resentment, or lagged behind.

Blows and kicks were administered with impartial severity by the brutal guards, while some did not hesitate to prod the helpless human cattle with the b.u.t.t-ends of their rifles.

”And yet there are worms in England who cry out about the dilution of labour and the encroachment of the rights of the working man,”

remarked Barcroft. ”This is the sort of rights they'd get if the Huns once occupied even a portion of the Homeland.”

”Poor bounders!” exclaimed the A.P. as he fondled the holster of his revolver. ”I'd like to put a shot through that red-faced swine's head.”

”You'd only make it worse for us and for them,” said Fuller.

”True,” a.s.sented Kirkwood, ”but a fellow cannot disguise his feelings in such circ.u.mstances. One thing seems certain: the Boches haven't got wind of our presence.”

”Don't know so much about that,” said Billy. ”Unless I'm much mistaken there's a patrol coming this way--and dogs, too, by Jove!”

In less than ten minutes (it had taken the trio an hour to cover the same distance) the patrol gained the field in which the Belgians were literally slaving. Apparently the crowd of workers disturbed the trail, for the bloodhounds, three ma.s.sive-limbed, heavy-jowled creatures, no longer kept their noses close to the ground and followed the fugitives' track without the slightest deviation.

Instead they wandered round in circles, growling rather than baying, and showing every indication of having lost the scent.